Reader’s Corner: Shakespeare in America

Shakespeare’s statue in Central Park (Library of Congress)

Given how many of us have happily or miserably worked through at least a couple Shakespeare plays in school, not to mention the frequency with which those plays are revived on Broadway and in touring companies everywhere, it’s amazing to think that there was a time when Shakespeare was actuallymore present in American life than today.

James Shapiro’s new book, Shakespeare in America, tells of how in the early nineteenth century, a quart...